The Lion of Lucerne honors massacred Swiss Guards

The Lion of Lucerne honors Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. The memorial was carved into a sandstone cliff face between 1820 and 1821. The colossal work of art measures ten meters by six meters. But it’s not the staggering size that is the most impressive element of the Lion of Lucerne. The emotion of a dying lion that designer Bertel Thorvaldsen evoked and Lukas Ahorn sculpted makes the cold stone come alive. Mark Twain called it ”the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”

Our AmaWaterways tour group visited the Lion of Lucerne, which is in the medieval portion of the city, before we checked into Hotel Schweizerhof Lucerne during the land extension of a Christmas on the Rhine river cruise. And it was the only site I saw in the Swiss city. When I woke up the next morning, excruciating pain kept me from walking across our lovely room to the bathroom. My time in Lucerne was spent in a hospital room trying to control the pain of a herniated disc so that MedJet Assist could fly us home.

From this experience, I learned that good health is the key to active travel—or any travel for that matter. What if we made 12 changes this year to improve our health? Would you like to make the commitment with me? I’ll be starting a series in February focusing on one health change a month (and in May we’ll make two changes so that we can reach 12 changes by the end of the year). I’ll include tips from experts as well as hints for keeping the change going during a trip.

Of course I want to share my experience and what I learned about evacuation programs (I can’t say enough good things about MedJet Assist) and the ins and outs of how to actually use your travel insurance. Unfortunately, my back did not get better once I returned to the U.S. I recently had outpatient back surgery which forced Alan and me to cancel our February Silversea cruise in the South Pacific. So, I’ll be sharing our experience about trip cancellation insurance, too. Stay tuned, all those issues must be sorted out before I can give you the scoop.

In the meantime, have you visited Lucerne? Post a comment to tell me what I missed. Alan and I will definitely return under better circumstances.